Thinking of moving my 2 Florida rental properties into LLC

[Carlos C.]

Hi Everyone!

Who is the appropriate professional that I would need to consult about legal aspects and benefits of moving my rentals into LLC? I want to understand what benefits it truly brings since seems like my insurance probably would go up after they get transferred.

Another reason I'm looking into this is because I've been trying to add my Property Manager as additional insured, but my current company (Citizens) won't do it.

Thanks everyone!

[Jason Wray]

Carlos,

When you change the title vesting on your investment property from owner/personal to LLC it is easy and quick. You can simply go to the County clerk of court and in most cases simply fill out a "Quit Claim" form and pay the recording and admin fee which is usually anot much $100-$250 in most cases. Keep in mind if your Bank/Lender you closed with allows it to be vested into an LLC you can do it but it is "not" common in most cases. Most banks have restrictions and a Clause where the mortgage/loan becomes "Due on Sale".

The biggest benefit of going from personal to LLC is to protect your assets against a law suit due to an injury or death by someone renting or using the property. As far as insurance goes you can you can also get an "Umbrella Policy" that can cover a much higher policy liability to help protect against a major injury or death.

To be honest if you do not have a lot of assets or multiple properties changing to an LLC is not a huge benefit. Its mostly to protect you and your assets/cash if the injury exceeds the insurance policy limits.

[Randall Alan]

Quote from @Carlos C.:

Hi Everyone!

Who is the appropriate professional that I would need to consult about legal aspects and benefits of moving my rentals into LLC? I want to understand what benefits it truly brings since seems like my insurance probably would go up after they get transferred.

Another reason I'm looking into this is because I've been trying to add my Property Manager as additional insured, but my current company (Citizens) won't do it.

Thanks everyone!

 Hi Carlos,

One word of caution regarding what you are thinking of doing...

This caution depends on how long you have owned the properties.  In Florida, you get grandfathered on property taxes based on when the value you paid when you purchased each property.  They can only increase property taxes by a certain percentage each year.  I think it was called "Save our Homes" at one point.  (I know the gist of all of this - but not the specifics... but enough to point it out to you...)

So be aware that if you transfer the property to an LLC - your county will likely treat this as a transfer of ownership (like they should)... the LLC is completely separate from you - even if you are the sole owner. This has the nasty effect of resetting your property valuation. If you JUST PURCHASED your property - this is no big deal (other than all the fees you will get charged by the county on the transfer). But what a lot of people don't know is that if you have owned your property for say 5-10 years - all that deferred appreciation your county tax appraiser has been tracking all those years - but not able to pass it along to you due to the caps on increases - goes out the window. So if you bought the property for $100,000 - but it is now worth $250,000 - you are probably being taxed on maybe $80-90,000 for the property value. Transfer it to your LLC, and whatever the just value of the property (usually about 20% below retail) becomes your new tax basis... so maybe $210,000 on the example above. It could be thousands of dollars more in property taxes - depending on how long you have held them.

It puts us in a hard place. We would like to transfer ours as well into LLC (we have 25 properties) - but they were bought in 2018-2021 and have gone up in value by about 3 fold. The hit on property taxes would be huge... so we continue to hold them in our own name, with a lot of liability insurance to try and protect us. We know it's not as good as the LLC... but it seems to make the most financial sense to us given the possibilities.

Hope it helps!  You can reach out to your local property tax people and they can explain it in more detail.  You can also look up the property on their website and they will show you the savings you have based on the grandfathering.

Here's an example where you will see $227,000 of cap differential on a property we own. So we pay taxes on a value of $408,356... but if we were to transfer it to an LLC taxes would be based on $635,000:

As for your question - a real estate attorney would likely be the best person to talk to.

All the best!

Randy

[Carlos C.]

Quote from @Jason Wray:

Carlos,

When you change the title vesting on your investment property from owner/personal to LLC it is easy and quick. You can simply go to the County clerk of court and in most cases simply fill out a "Quit Claim" form and pay the recording and admin fee which is usually anot much $100-$250 in most cases. Keep in mind if your Bank/Lender you closed with allows it to be vested into an LLC you can do it but it is "not" common in most cases. Most banks have restrictions and a Clause where the mortgage/loan becomes "Due on Sale".

The biggest benefit of going from personal to LLC is to protect your assets against a law suit due to an injury or death by someone renting or using the property. As far as insurance goes you can you can also get an "Umbrella Policy" that can cover a much higher policy liability to help protect against a major injury or death.

To be honest if you do not have a lot of assets or multiple properties changing to an LLC is not a huge benefit. Its mostly to protect you and your assets/cash if the injury exceeds the insurance policy limits.

 Thanks for the info Jason!!

[Carlos C.]

Quote from @Randall Alan:

Quote from @Carlos C.:

Hi Everyone!

Who is the appropriate professional that I would need to consult about legal aspects and benefits of moving my rentals into LLC? I want to understand what benefits it truly brings since seems like my insurance probably would go up after they get transferred.

Another reason I'm looking into this is because I've been trying to add my Property Manager as additional insured, but my current company (Citizens) won't do it.

Thanks everyone!

 Hi Carlos,

One word of caution regarding what you are thinking of doing...

This caution depends on how long you have owned the properties.  In Florida, you get grandfathered on property taxes based on when the value you paid when you purchased each property.  They can only increase property taxes by a certain percentage each year.  I think it was called "Save our Homes" at one point.  (I know the gist of all of this - but not the specifics... but enough to point it out to you...)

So be aware that if you transfer the property to an LLC - your county will likely treat this as a transfer of ownership (like they should)... the LLC is completely separate from you - even if you are the sole owner. This has the nasty effect of resetting your property valuation. If you JUST PURCHASED your property - this is no big deal (other than all the fees you will get charged by the county on the transfer). But what a lot of people don't know is that if you have owned your property for say 5-10 years - all that deferred appreciation your county tax appraiser has been tracking all those years - but not able to pass it along to you due to the caps on increases - goes out the window. So if you bought the property for $100,000 - but it is now worth $250,000 - you are probably being taxed on maybe $80-90,000 for the property value. Transfer it to your LLC, and whatever the just value of the property (usually about 20% below retail) becomes your new tax basis... so maybe $210,000 on the example above. It could be thousands of dollars more in property taxes - depending on how long you have held them.

It puts us in a hard place. We would like to transfer ours as well into LLC (we have 25 properties) - but they were bought in 2018-2021 and have gone up in value by about 3 fold. The hit on property taxes would be huge... so we continue to hold them in our own name, with a lot of liability insurance to try and protect us. We know it's not as good as the LLC... but it seems to make the most financial sense to us given the possibilities.

Hope it helps!  You can reach out to your local property tax people and they can explain it in more detail.  You can also look up the property on their website and they will show you the savings you have based on the grandfathering.

Here's an example where you will see $227,000 of cap differential on a property we own. So we pay taxes on a value of $408,356... but if we were to transfer it to an LLC taxes would be based on $635,000:

As for your question - a real estate attorney would likely be the best person to talk to.

All the best!

Randy

Thank you for such a thorough explanation Randy!  This will definitely help me make my decision!

[Ray Hage]

@Randall Alan very well said, you explained the property tax very well. A couple of years ago, I transferred 2 properties from my personal to LLC name and got a large tax increase!

@Carlos C. If you are buying future properties, it is best to buy them under the LLC directly especially if you are buying them in cash. Of course, you will still need some kind insurance policy to cover your butt. It is not likely you will get sued but you never know.

[Michael Smythe]

@Carlos C. in our opinion, the only real reason to put your properties in an LLC is for anonymity.

Many investors screw this up though, by using their own name and address as the LLC Registered Agent:(

All risk can be mitigated with enough insurance. 

Due on Sale Clause - FNMA started allowing transfers to single-member LLC's several years ago.

Additionally Insured: if you push hard enough, most insurance companies will agree to add PMC. Otherwise, just get a different company.

[Jeff Hagen]

Quote from @Randall Alan:

Quote from @Carlos C.:

Hi Everyone!

Who is the appropriate professional that I would need to consult about legal aspects and benefits of moving my rentals into LLC? I want to understand what benefits it truly brings since seems like my insurance probably would go up after they get transferred.

Another reason I'm looking into this is because I've been trying to add my Property Manager as additional insured, but my current company (Citizens) won't do it.

Thanks everyone!

 Hi Carlos,

One word of caution regarding what you are thinking of doing...

This caution depends on how long you have owned the properties.  In Florida, you get grandfathered on property taxes based on when the value you paid when you purchased each property.  They can only increase property taxes by a certain percentage each year.  I think it was called "Save our Homes" at one point.  (I know the gist of all of this - but not the specifics... but enough to point it out to you...)

So be aware that if you transfer the property to an LLC - your county will likely treat this as a transfer of ownership (like they should)... the LLC is completely separate from you - even if you are the sole owner. This has the nasty effect of resetting your property valuation. If you JUST PURCHASED your property - this is no big deal (other than all the fees you will get charged by the county on the transfer). But what a lot of people don't know is that if you have owned your property for say 5-10 years - all that deferred appreciation your county tax appraiser has been tracking all those years - but not able to pass it along to you due to the caps on increases - goes out the window. So if you bought the property for $100,000 - but it is now worth $250,000 - you are probably being taxed on maybe $80-90,000 for the property value. Transfer it to your LLC, and whatever the just value of the property (usually about 20% below retail) becomes your new tax basis... so maybe $210,000 on the example above. It could be thousands of dollars more in property taxes - depending on how long you have held them.

It puts us in a hard place. We would like to transfer ours as well into LLC (we have 25 properties) - but they were bought in 2018-2021 and have gone up in value by about 3 fold. The hit on property taxes would be huge... so we continue to hold them in our own name, with a lot of liability insurance to try and protect us. We know it's not as good as the LLC... but it seems to make the most financial sense to us given the possibilities.

Hope it helps!  You can reach out to your local property tax people and they can explain it in more detail.  You can also look up the property on their website and they will show you the savings you have based on the grandfathering.

Here's an example where you will see $227,000 of cap differential on a property we own. So we pay taxes on a value of $408,356... but if we were to transfer it to an LLC taxes would be based on $635,000:

As for your question - a real estate attorney would likely be the best person to talk to.

All the best!

Randy

The SOH cap on investment properties is 10% per year, so the assessed value will catch up pretty quickly once the market stabilizes.